


Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

by Coraleeveritas



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 02:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11244780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coraleeveritas/pseuds/Coraleeveritas
Summary: It had been nearly a year to the day since Brienne had last seen him. Their Skype conversations didn't really count in the same way, not when whichever of the seven hells he'd been deployed to came with a spotty connection at best.





	Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [All the lovely ladies at JBO](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=All+the+lovely+ladies+at+JBO).



> Remember that photoshoot Nikolaj did earlier in the year for AK Club where he was dressed a bit like a soldier returning home with a big duffle bag? That photoshoot was my inspiration for this fic. 
> 
> Thank you to the wonderful RoseHeart for beta-ing this in record time and for reining back by habit of going overboard with unnecessary details :)
> 
> I'm gifting this to all the lovely ladies at JBO, just after the third anniversary of the board being born. Here's hoping for many more years of awesomeness!
> 
> Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me.

It had been nearly a year to the day since Brienne had last seen him. Their Skype conversations didn't really count in the same way, not when whichever of the seven hells he'd been deployed to came with a spotty connection at best. But even with that semi-regular contact, she still couldn't shake all the concerns that weighed heavily on her mind in the middle of sleepless nights, knowing how difficult it would be to forge a real relationship while he was based overseas, spending too long wondering if they should have stayed as a one night stand, rather than setting herself up for failure and heartbreak further down the line.

Time and time again, however, Colonel Jaime Lannister exceeded her expectations. Like clockwork he sent her a letter once a week, called her as often as he could, safety and rota dependent, and made her feel like they could be something special, given half a chance. Up until that point, the only other man who'd shown a repeated interest stopped calling the day after they'd slept together and they were living next door to each other at the time, not separated by the deepest of oceans and thousands of miles.

The funny thing was that she hadn't even planned to attend the military family farewell event that brought them into each other's orbit. Galladon, her older brother, had another few weeks of leave left but had decided, at the last minute, to sign up for his third tour of duty early. He wouldn't come back the same, burned and blinded by a road side bomb barely a month in, but Brienne hadn't known that then, as she had tried not to laugh as she answered the questions of his friends and colleagues in an effort to embarrass him with stories from childhood.

And then Jaime walked in and just about rendered her speechless.

He was a walking ball of insults and irritation, not to mention being far too pretty for his own good, his barbs getting under her overly freckled skin in a way that no one, not even Hyle the Cunt had managed in the past. And yet, six hours later, after the boys had left their CO to find a better way to enjoy their last night of freedom before deployment, they were still talking. Having moved on from taking shots at her oversized and underwhelming physical attributes, Jaime had discovered her competitive nature sometime around hour three, challenging her to game after game of pool. Reaching a stalemate as they continued to prowl around the table, he was the one that broke the emotionally charged tension by pulling her into a much wanted kiss just as midnight hit, making her the ugliest girl to be caught in a whirlwind fairytale. Brienne didn't want to waste the time thinking twice before taking him home.

She expected some awkwardness the morning after, but even after they'd lingered in bed, quiet and comfortable, Jaime had acted like it was completely out of character for him to spend the night with a girl he'd just met, like he really had been attracted and she wasn't just an easy, lonely target. With that in mind, following breakfast, the smell of freshly brewed coffee causing Jaime to start moaning sinfully all over again, she thought it was only polite to drive him back to the base. She lived nearly thirty miles away from his barracks, after all, and a taxi at that time of the morning would be hard to come by.

Suburban buildings soon melted into rolling hills and vales, the change in scenery doing nothing to stop Jaime talking at ninety miles an hour, trying to get her to bite into any subject she would disagree with him on. The repeated attempts made it feel like he was trying to stretch the minutes they had left together and, while some part of her wanted to believe that he truly mirrored her hope of more time, his elaborate plans for the future didn't seem overly convincing to her fragile heart.

As a civilian high school teacher Brienne didn't have the clearance to allow her past the front gates, a Colonel's rank doing little to impress the boy at the checkpoint, but there was nothing to stop them acting on Jaime's suggestion to park the car just out of sight of the helicopters and say goodbye properly. Despite her head swimming in questions, there was no time for words when his kisses left her breathless, weak in the knees and liquid between her thighs, listening to him murmur her name between touches like a drowning man in need of a lifeline. It could have all been an act, trust being a difficult concept for her to fully embrace, but she was beginning to wonder if Jaime was someone who didn't know the meaning of 'too much, too soon', pulling back only to ask if she'd think of him when she took care of herself later.

"If things go well, I should have some time off before your school year starts. If you want to see-"

"You know where I am. I'm not planning on going anywhere." Brienne paused, biting into her lip as she mentally worked through the best way to let him know she wasn't interested in becoming _that_ kind of special friend.

"But?" he prompted slowly, waving a hand in front of her eyes when she still didn't have her response all figured out. "Earth to Brienne."

"But...maybe we could go for dinner and a movie next time."

Jaime laughed, leaning over to peck her on the cheek. "It's a date."

She could have let him go on that light, jovial note but, just as the sun finally burst over the horizon, Brienne couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around him and whispering into his hair, the lust that had ruled their earlier actions now gone. "Be careful out there."

Feeling his smile falter against her skin, Jaime relaxed into the embrace, rubbing his palm across her shoulder. "I always am."

*******

Sometimes it felt like only yesterday she was bidding him farewell from the driver's seat of her big blue car, accepting and doubting their connection in the same heartbeat, but nearly three years had passed since their first night together and they'd repeated the cycle of goodbye and good luck so many times since. It never seemed to get any easier. Brienne had, however, just about grown used to the whirlwind of his regularly scheduled visits, seven to ten days twice a year, settling into a temporarily shared life full of easy domesticity, 'getting to know you' dates and the best sex she could imagine. But despite having been introduced to his brother and the children when they could no longer deny how serious their relationship was becoming, her own brother and father meeting him at a fundraising event, there was never enough time to properly consider what the future could hold, the potential of a life beyond the military hanging in the air each time they parted. It wasn't as if they hadn't discussed his retirement before, the subject usually arising when they were cuddled up, post coital, but Jaime was barely forty and had little real world experience beyond that which came from being a battlefield commander. And, as she soon discovered, her bed was really the wrong time and place to come up with a definite decision for what he could do with the rest of his life.

"I've got some ideas," he'd purred, kissing the tips of her fingers, his green eyes wildfire bright. "You don't mind going without clothes for a while, do you, love?"

"We could go to the Summer Isles the next time you're here, if you want," she replied, knowing it wasn't what he meant as soon as she said it.

"As long as I'm with you, we can go anywhere. The Summer Islanders need teachers, too, you know."

She looked down at him with a frown, silver strands starting to shine at his temples, the suggestion of moving away from the only people who'd spent decades loving her unconditionally feeling like a foreign concept. "I've never lived anywhere but here."

"But you dreamed of seeing the world when you were younger, right? All those books on your shelves surely aren't full of adventure and romance in hundreds of far flung places for no reason?"

"I did," she replied, thinking of a time before responsibilities and practical solutions overwhelmed her existence. "I always wanted to explore Old Valyria and the tombs of the legendary lost soldiers of Yi Ti."

"Well, we have a lifetime."

"If we went...you'd miss seeing Cella and Tomm growing up."

"It's not like I'm here all the time as it is. They aren't going to worry about the absentee pseudo parent when they've got their grandfather with them." Jaime paused, growing uncharacteristically quiet in the time it took for the hurt in his words to really sink in, Brienne knowing his own realtionship with Tywin Lannister was fractured at best.

"They could visit at weekends when we got settled," she decided suddenly, the fantasy of living with Jaime at her side springing to life in her mind, too real and bright to completely push away. "And school holidays, give them a chance to see the world is more than high rises and big cities."

Jaime made a contented noise as she brushed her lips over the top of his head. "Tommen's always wanted a cat."

"I like cats. We always had at least one in the house when I was growing up."

"When we're settled?"

"When we're settled."

*******

He was half way into his next block of service before Brienne realised that their whole conversation around kittens and country cottages hadn't been something soothing to say between tumbles under her sheets. They were so alike when it came to family and duty, the chance to accept that real love could allow them to be _more_ had fallen by the wayside, but when Jaime's letters grew ever more hopeful it only opened an emotional floodgate she'd been ignoring for years, making her miss him more than she'd ever thought possible. Not wanting to notice the scent fading from her pillows, she overextended herself at work, occupying her mind with challenging lesson plans and after school sports clubs, training the girls' hockey and soccer teams four nights a week. Their progress, along with the arrival of Galladon's new guide dog, gave her some new subjects to focus on in her replies.

She'd given up watching the evening news again, the constant bombings doing nothing to help her sleep, her dad's inside sources cryptic though more reliable. Tywin had done all he could to make sure she was kept out of the loop, believing, even half a decade later, that she wasn't to be trusted, especially as Tyrion thought she was the single, best things to ever happen to Jaime. The millionaire patriarch had forgotten that her own father had been a lauded army general and the Tarths had never been short of a dragon or two. Just because she was a school teacher, Brienne wasn't automatically looking for a share of the company Jaime had never wanted dealings with. Then there was the day she'd felt like screaming when she received a very pointed phone call from Lannister Mutual about pregnancy and pre-nuptials.

In the end, it was an advert on drive time radio that provided her with a solution to Jaime's coming career change, the answer so simple when they looked beyond the obvious. After an evening of phone calls, a wave of excitement and relief providing her with perfect clarity, she rushed through a letter explaining that any emergency service in her area would be happy to re-train him, his experience and military background invaluable in pressurised situations, he just had to choose. Jaime's reply would have barely been worth the special delivery postal charge if there hadn't been a sapphire adorned white gold band weighing it down, joking that he'd always wanted to be a firefighter, but only if he could pick her first.

The ring fit perfectly. The telegram she sent back was one word long.

Although she had to put up with her colleagues whispering about her 'fake' engagement, Connington going as far as to proposition her in the staff room in an incident that had the girls in her favourite AP class claiming Brienne should teach self defence, she managed to let most of their jibes fall on deaf ears. Maybe Jaime had the right idea in moving away, constantly coming in contact with people she'd grown up with only allowed history to repeat. It was definitely something to consider once he'd finished his training.

After signing his contract through a multitude of multinational couriers, FDKL had given Jaime six weeks following his return from the front to marry and settle back into civilian life, time to find a way to work with her real day to day schedule, time to come to terms with the things she took for granted. It was still difficult to imagine having him as a permanent fixture in her home but she wouldn't have him staying anywhere else. After all, they had a life, and a honeymoon, to plan. Though, desperate not to tempt fate, she left it as late as she could before leaving for the airfield, spending the entire day Jaime was due to return on tenterhooks.

The helicopter was supposed to touch down at quarter to, though it was now closer to ten past the hour and she still hadn't seen him depart from the belly of the whirring beast, Jaime lagging behind as if needing to double count his men off like she would teenagers on a school trip. Hidden behind family groups forming a horseshoe of expectant excitement, Brienne didn't want to move away from her car, the old blue clunker distinctive enough to be picked out of any crowd. Feeling her heart begin to race, she closed her eyes for a second to calm and centre, finding that Jaime had appeared almost out of nowhere when she came back to her surroundings, casually leaning against a wall just watching her. He must have ditched his fatigues during the flight, she thought, noticing that her old leather jacket had been thrown over a set of dark and light grey sweats, though Jaime habitually still wore his dog tags around his neck, the duffle bag over his shoulder looking lighter than usual. He also looked like he hadn't shaved or slept in a couple of days but just having him here, whole and alive, was enough for Brienne to start falling in love all over again.

His lips quirked upwards as she slammed the car door in a hurry and near skipped towards him, Jaime starting out at the same time to meet her halfway across the yard. He opened his arms and she gratefully walked into them, feeling how quickly the exhaustion caught up with him, Jaime all but melting against her as she inhaled the scent of salt and sand clinging to black leather.

"I was expecting a banner but I guess I'll have to accept the dress instead," he rumbled into her ear, running a hand down her back as if checking she were real, the pale blue shirt dress a last minute choice for the late spring evening. "I mean it's not every day a guy is honourably retired with a medal of bravery and valour."

The arrogance forcibly dripping from his words made her want to glare in chastisement, but knowing that was exactly the reaction he was aiming for, Brienne merely frowned. "You didn't tell me that."

"I haven't told anyone yet. They only confirmed it two days ago. The Visenya Cross." Jaime took a breath, all the snark and attitude disappearing to be replaced by a spike of recent pain. She didn't push him to share anything else but he couldn't stop. "I want to give it to Peck's mother. At the ceremony. He was the brave one, surviving all that time in captivity, all I did was pull him out."

"Okay, we can do that," she agreed, shivering as he squeezed a little tighter, rubbing his cheek against her neck. "This is the end, isn't it, Jaime? You're not going to get bored in six months and want to go out again?"

"Is that what you've been worrying about?" he lifted his head, nuzzling gently before kissing her soundly on the lips. "I'm not going to get bored of being with you, Brienne. We can go straight to a sept and I'll proclaim it in front of the seven. Or a heart tree, though I'm not sure you have too many of those around anymore. Or-"

"It's okay, it's alright," she interrupted, returning the kiss carefully, the feel of his tongue flickering against her lower lip causing a wave of heat to rush through her. "I believe you. And we've only got days until the wedding. There was a cancellation and I thought you wouldn't want to wait."

"You were right," he purred, stealing another touch in full view of his departing men and their families. "I've really missed you. And Pentoshi takeout. But mainly you."

"Why don't we get some on the way back, then?"

He cocked his head, looking up at her quizzically. "I thought you didn't like people eating in your car. In fact, I distinctively remember you telling me you didn't like people eating in your car that first morning when I wanted to stop for donuts."

"I figure I could make an exception," she shrugged, pulling away as emotion collided with embarrassment. "I mean it's not every day my fiancé retires from the army with The Visenya Cross of all things. Pod won't have been the only boy you helped come back alive." She held out her hand, struck by how bright and hopeful he seemed just by being home. "Are you ready?"

Jaime glanced behind him, the helicopter already in the process of ferrying another group of soldiers back to the front, and nodded, squeezing her fingers like he never wanted to let go. "Lead on, my love."

Brienne didn't think she would ever get used to the way his fingers curled around hers, familiar and possessive and oh so loving, Jaime still silently asking for and sharing strength, making sure the first steps they made towards the rest of their lives were done together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


End file.
